


A Hundred Bad Days (Made A Hundred Good Stories)

by FormlessSnow



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inspired by Music, Light Angst, Love, Moving In Together, No Sex, No Smut, Out of Character, Poetry, Post-it Notes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-18 18:58:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19340614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FormlessSnow/pseuds/FormlessSnow
Summary: For my fluff-loving girl. More to come. Tags to be added.





	1. Poetry in Motion

Billy checked out a book from the library. He had to- there was no other way that he'd be able to study.

He entered his house with no plans to do anything against the rules, no plans of getting yelled at, only sitting down and finding the chapter that Steve had told him the test would be on so that he'd pass the class.

Billy's plans were ruined because apparently, the last person to check out the book had left something there. A few photographs fell from somewhere in the middle of the book, faceless but clearly belonging to men. Men who should not be in a teenager's textbook.

Neil didn't ask. Neil didn't laugh. Neil just punched him. Billy raised his hands to defend himself; he was used to it by now.

Steve came over to help Billy study. He saw the pictures on the ground, with a scarlet splash across them. He saw Neil's fist in the air, bruised and bloodied. He didn't see anything else but red.

Steve's left hand intercepted Neil's swing, angling just right to clip him and make him land the couch and not Billy. Steve's right hand caught Neil's throat, forcing him back. Steve's voice slammed into Billy's ears.

"Go. Just go." The fear in his voice moved Billy, and he ran up the stairs to his bedroom.

Steve's eyes remained on Neil.

"That's a library book, dumbass, Billy's not gay." That was true, Billy was bisexual. He liked men more and Steve knew but he didn't care. "Some chick left those last week, a redhead. You need to stop beating your kid or Hopper'll find out."

* * *

Steve found Billy in the library the day after. Billy couldn't speak, so Steve sat with him and gave him a mint. He wrote on a little post-it note for him with a calm blue pen Dustin had bought for him.

_I know who you are_

_I know who you've been_

_So scared but that's alright_

_Crowded streets take place of open air_

_Don't be too afraid to let me in_

_I'll take you somewhere you can breathe tonight_

Billy read it and smiled some, and he put the note in his folder. He had his own notecards, and he scribbled a message back in bolder black ink.

**Crowded streets seem awfully thick**

**And I can't really think past eight**

**Not a soul should see me like this**

**Too bad there's not a soul so late**

**When will enough be just that**

**Am I stuck too far from the crowded gate?**

**I'm suffocating now, just waiting it out**

**Til someday I can feel great**

Steve read the note, smiling back. He tucked his in his folder too, then wrote on another post it note.

He left it on Billy's hand as the librarian came to ask them what they were doing.

"Studying rhyme schemes and their effects on emotion," Steve told her. "For a psychology project. Sharing notes."

_Memories made in the park, in the dark_

_You'll never cry in the smoke, too shy_

_Can you hear the drums of the slums_

_Am I the only one? Is it already done?_

_Ready, set, go, rage, ice, snow,_

_Too fast to abhor or adore_

_We'll be lost down in the rooms of the tombs_

_On our way to stay_

_Here in this city I take no pity_

_Only us smoking dolls in the crawls_

_Unless we discover a new kind of lover_

_Send no help to the sky, no high_

_Ephemeral stages freed us from cages_

_So long and goodnight_

The librarian left. Billy smiled. He looked at Steve, who subtly kissed his own fingers and touched Billy's cheek, pretending to make him look at the door as a girl who hated Billy walked by. Billy pretended to flirt, and they stayed.

* * *

"Thank you for stopping... For stopping my dad," Billy whispered, laying on Steve's chest. Max was having a sleepover with El, so Billy wasn't needed exactly for anything. Steve had found a little rowboat and taken him to Lover's Lake, and Billy was laying down to better breathe.

"No problem." Steve carded a hand through his hair. "It wasn't your fault, love."

"I didn't take those pictures-"

"I know you didn't, Billy. I really do. You never have to fear me. I promise. I'm here for you." Steve held Billy close, looking him in the eye. "You're safe with me."

Billy nodded, closing his eyes. "I know."

Steve nodded too. He was already working on bringing him out of that house.


	2. Sunshine Doesn't Feel Like Health

Billy had an unknown disease. They couldn't place it anywhere. It was unlike what had happened with Will, and Billy was scheduled to be tested nonstop for weeks. He'd been feeling fatigued, he had odd rashes, a fever, a slow heartbeat, couldn't keep food down. He had a lump in his arm, which they tested first and the results would get back later that day.

Neil had been angry at him for it. Angry that his son had been so sick he nearly died in front of Max. Because of this, Max and Steve were the only people who visited him.

Max brought him a few things from their house, having been too empathetic to ignore his plight, and she pitied him. Steve held his hand through the cramps racking his body.

"You don't got to stay with me, Harrington," Billy mumbled, curled up on Steve's chest. "I'll be fine."

"You'll be alone if I go. And you're not allowed to go either, Hargrove, understand?" Steve murmured. He carefully carded a hand through his hair. "Not allowed to leave me alone."

Billy tried to force a smile. It got smashed off by another wave of pain, and he squeezed Steve's hand tightly in his fist. He sobbed, shaking his head as the cramps made their way up his body.

Steve kissed him deeply when it broke, to chase away the fear in his lover's heart temporarily.

Billy eventually closed his eyes, passing out.

When he woke, Steve was still there, clutching his hand and reading over official-looking documents. Billy tried to look at them, but Steve pulled them back.

"No, not for you. Not yours. Mine. Your tests did come back, though. Here." Steve picked up a manilla folder, handing it to Billy, who read it over.

"It's a pulled muscle?"

"Your arm's a pulled muscle," Steve explained. "But the rest of your body, the cramps, the fever, that's all up here." Steve tapped a different test.

The result was some type of jargon, but it was translated to layman's terms. Basically, he'd need his hair shaved so they could drain some pressure from a swell in his skull, in one of his ears, and then he had to lay on his side for entirely too long in a dark room and he was to be moved away from his dad's house forever. (Max and her mother were going to move into one of Hopper's cabins.)

Billy cried, and Steve held him close, reassured him, praosed him.

Billy spent three weeks in Steve's basement. At the end of those three weeks, he was graduated to whatever room he wanted. Billy chose Steve's, but before Steve could move out, Billy dragged him in for a cuddle.

Steve let him.


End file.
